Tuesday, July 4, 2006

More fed investigations the better?

Rod Blagojevich was in Wheaton today unloading his more-bizarre-by-the-day defense about the exploding corruption investigation enveloping his administration. He says the fed investigations are a good thing because it means his Inspector General is catching wronging.

That didn't happen under George Ryan, said Rod, who is still using the former governor as a scapegoat even though he's been governor nearly four years.

Well, it's self-evident that if his administration was doing things right in the first place, there would be no need for nine separate state and federal investigations. And, didn't Rod tell us Oct. 27, 2005, in the Tribune that the systems were put in place to make sure this stuff doesn't happen.

Blagojevich said that in the weeks after he won election but before he took office in January 2003, he and his staff consulted with numerous lawyers and former Gov. James Thompson, who headed his transition team, about the best way to make hiring decisions. Blagojevich promised to reform state government following the scandal-scarred administration of George Ryan, who is currently on trial.

"I think, in many ways, I was fortunate enough to be governor in the wake of the previous administration, Gov. Ryan's administration. As we were building our administration, we were mindful of some of the things that happened before, some of the structures that were not in place," he said. "And as we constructed our administration, we were determined to make sure we built in systems that could make sure that we protect the taxpayers' money and that we do the best job we possibly can to make sure that people work, work honestly and do the people's business to the best of their ability."

He said that his administration stressed that qualifications were key in all state employees who have been hired since he became governor in January 2003. "Qualifications. All the time. Again, the decisions that are made when it comes to who gets hired in different places, those decisions are made through a whole system that we have established," he said.

So the converse to Rod's whole argument is that an administration with no federal investigations must be corrupt. Now that's some reverse spin.